What the Hell Happened Last Night
by WolverinesDarlin
Summary: Ever wonder why during Swamp Fever we start off in a train car and not by a downed helicopter and a dead pilot? Hmmm? Well here's what I think...  little Nick and Ro' because I can. Rated T for some violence and language.  improved version


_I think I made up a word for this story… 'scootched' people use it all the time but I don't' think it is an offcial word. _

_I'm kinda flying through this one. So please forgive any typos._

_Disclaimer: You know the rest._

_For the record this is my 40th story everybody! I'm inviting you all to an imaginary '40th story party'! _

_Enjoy!_

X.x.X.x

Rochelle sighed contently as she leaned back in the chair. "We're safe." She said quietly.

"What was that?" Ellis shouted to her from across the seating area, Nick sitting next to him on his right and Coach sitting next to her on her left.

"I said we're SAFE!" She shouted back so they could all hear.

The pilot had said a few things about where they were heading and what would be happening once they reached their destination, but he had slurred his words a little and put it with the noise of the chopper he was almost inaudible. Nobody really cared though… for the first time in two weeks they were safe.

Rochelle smacked the wall behind her to talk to the pilot, "Yo! Pilot! We almost there?"

There was a short pause and then a strange moan of sorts, but it was more like a strangled breathing sound; almost as though he couldn't get in enough oxygen.

"Sir?" She called and turned around to look through the small gap between the back of her bench and the cockpit.

She looked down and noticed a furious red bite on his neck and his arm had a large white bandage around the forearm and the bleeding was so bad it was seeping and dripping through the bandage. "Aw shit." She said and turned back around to face Nick and Ellis.

"Boys! We got ourselves a problem!"

Nick groaned, "You were saying about us being safe?"

"Shuddup Nick!" Coach scolded. "What seems to be the problem little sister?"

"I think our pilot is…!" Nick pulled out his magnum and aimed it behind her, "SHIT!"

Rochelle unbuckled herself and threw herself to the ground to avoid getting either shot or bit, when she looked back up she watched as the pilot was stuck his head through the gap, and held one hand out it front of him.

"Wait… help me… please… help me." The pilot rasped.

Nobody knew what to do; instead they all just stared at the dying pilot. Not knowing what was happening to the poor man and what they could do.

"Please… help me." He said one final time before going unconscious and falling over the seat, in the very place she had sat down just moments ago. Coach sat there, staring down at the body in shock. "Damn." He muttered, Rochelle stood and moved to sit back down when Nick spoke again.

"Uh. Not to be insensitive… but who the HELL is DRIVING?" Nick shouted. At that moment the chopper lurched and swung to the side. Rochelle grabbed the seatbelt that was dangling from the seat and grabbed on for support.

"ROCHELLE!" Nick shouted as the helicopter lurched again to the other side. She was thrown from one side of the chopper to the other, the seat belt keeping her inside the chopper, it became the only reason she wasn't free falling into the swamp water.

All three men reached out to try and grab a hold of her when the pilot 'woke up'. At first everyone watched and hoped that he was fine and could bring the rapidly failing helicopter back up to where it needed to be, and save them all.

It wasn't until he turned to Coach and tried to eat his arm like a corn on the cob that Nick pulled his weapon back out and head shotted the pilot, blowing his grey matter on the windshield behind him.

"NICK! WHAT THE HELL?" Ellis screamed as he covered his ears from the ringing the gunshot created.

But the moment was short lived as Rochelle screamed as part of the belt broke, elongating the belt and throwing her from inside the chopper to outside of it. Nick unbuckled his own seatbelt and held on to the side of the door and grabbed Rochelle's wrist.

Rochelle looked up at Nick, fear and tears glistening in her eyes. "Nick! Please! Don't let go!"

"I'm not going to let you go Rochelle I promise!" Nick screamed back, just as terrified as she was. He knew that this was one promise he could keep. If he was to EVER let go of her he could come back out and hold onto her as the fell, making sure she wasn't alone.

"NICK!" She cried, she was terrified and he was the only one she could see. The only thing she could think of.

Nick felt like crying and just as he felt her start to slip he felt somebody grab the back of his jacket and pull him back in, his tight grip on her wrist became tighter as he pulled her back into the chopper.

Nick fell to the floor with Rochelle on top. The two of them scrambled to get back into their seats and buckled up. Rochelle sat next to Ellis and Nick buckled up next to her, providing Rochelle with a tiny bubble between Ellis and himself.

The two of them grabbed one another's hands and interlaced their fingers.

As the chopper grew more and more out of control they started to spin around making them all lean into one another from the momentum of the spins, all four of them screamed uncontrollably and soon the whole world became dark to the survivors.

X.x.X.x

Rochelle was the first to wake up. She opened her eyes and looked around, in the distance she could see a young man in overalls stumbling about, puking up blood and other zombie things, she huffed and re closed her eyes when her vision became blurry.

Something sharp was pressing into her stomach and she rolled over onto her back to escape it and sighed in relief when the pressure disappeared.

The smell of smoke filled her nostrils and she re opened her eyes and looked around. The chopper was no more than 20 feet from her, still smoking and on fire in some places. She must have pulled herself from the wreck before she passed out…

Or sombody else did.

She sat up and looked around looking for her three favorite men in her life.

She noticed a rather large body laying on top of some rubble only about 5 feet away from the previous helicopter and shot to her feet. She was sore but ignored the pain in her left leg and ran to where she found Coach lying.

"Coach!" She called as she limped to his body as quickly as she could, falling to her knees next to him when she got close. "Coach… c'mon wake up." She put her hand on his chest and shook him gently. When he didn't stir she shook her head, "No no no… this cannot be happening." She muttered and put her fingers to his neck.

There was a pulse.

"Oh thank god." She said in relief. "COACH!" She screamed, hoping to wake him from his unconscious state.

The older man jolted and woke up instantly, coming face to face with his improv alarm clock. "No need to yell little sister." He scolded.

She laughed and stood up, offering him a hand up, he took it gratefully but did not allow her to take on his full weight as she pulled him up. "Where are the boys?" He asked.

She shook her head. "I'm not sure."

The two of them got to work, calling their names and searching for the two of them.

Rochelle was growing nervous and decided to go to the actual wreck of the helicopter to look for them, in doing so her worst nightmare came true, a flash of white in all the wreck and rubble made her feel slow and tired as she walked towards it.

She got hold of the soft material and pulled at it. The body moved and she managed to pull Nick away from the wreck, he groaned at the effort and she froze in her attempts to pull him out.

"Nick?"

"Leg…" He mumbled.

Rochelle looked down to his leg and realized what the problem was, his right leg was pinned under some of the rubble, it looked to be caught underneath the bench. Rochelle tried to lift the bench off of his leg but failed and only managed to cause the conman more pain and grief.

"Coach, I got Nick… I need some help." She called out to the black man; trying to remain as calm as possible.

Rochelle moved behind Nick and laid him back so he was resting on her, his left leg was free and stretched out in front of him, where as the right was still underneath.

He moaned and leaned back into her, his head resting on her left shoulder; she had her arms wrapped around his body and rested the side of her face on the top of his head. "You're alright Nick… just hold on."

He made a 'mhmm' sound and seemed to relax into her.

Coach came stumbling out from behind some more rubble off to her left and came jogging up to the two of them. "What seems to be the problem?" He said assessing the damage and their precarious situation.

Rochelle quickly informed him that Nick had his right leg pinned under the bench and she needed his help to lift it.

Coach nodded and patted the conman's shoulder. "We'll get you out of this yet." He assured and Nick did little to acknowledge him.

Coach put both of his hands under the bench and lifted as hard as he could, after a couple of tries the bench came loose and lifted easily off of the conman's leg.

Coach lifted the bench up and away from the three of them and discarded it. "There we go." He said while clapping his hands together to rid the filth from his hands.

"You got this now little sister?" He asked, when she nodded he did the same and continued, "I'm going to try and find Ellis." He said as he walked away.

Rochelle sighed and pulled Nick away from herself a little. "Let's get you outta here." She said, he groaned but she continued and grabbed the nape of his jacket and his arm and stood him up.

Once the two of them were standing she wrapped his right arm around her shoulders and guided him away from the debris and into the street in front of them.

Once they were rather clear she laid him down on the cold cement gently, cradling his head until she knew it wouldn't hurt him to lay it on the cement.

Now that he was laid flat she could fully assess the man's injuries; he had a large gash on his forehead that was still seeping blood but most had already dried up around the wound on his head and in his dark hair.

She brushed her thumb around the area a little but stopped when he winced at the contact. "Sorry…" She said quietly and moved to the rest of his body. Gently she prodded his chest area to search for broken ribs or any other damage.

It seemed to cause him some discomfort but nothing to serious which relieved her beyond words.

It seemed the worst damage was his possible concussion and an injured leg. "I'm going to take a look at your leg." She informed him.

His eyes remained closed but he nodded nonetheless.

She shifted away from his upper body and scootched down to his lower body and rolled up his pant leg.

There was a large angry gash on his leg, starting a couple inches below his knee and stopping a couple inches above his ankle.

She winced in pity for him and pulled the med kit off her back and ripped it open, searching for any leftover gauze and antibiotics. When she found some she sighed in relief and got to work on his leg; the gauze around a pad and wrapping it as gently but as effectively as she could, when she was finished working on his leg she rolled his pant leg back down and moved to his forehead. She wiped the blood away the best she could and placed a butterfly closure over top the wound.

"There you go Sweetie…" She said softly and brushed some of the hair away from his forehead, "You're alright."

Nick opened his eyes and looked at her moment, "Thanks…" He rasped.

X.x.X.x

Coach huffed a little as he kicked and looked around the chopper debris, hoping to God he would find the young mechanic soon.

He kicked something that made a strange sound and picked it up, a defib. He remembered seeing Ellis grab one on the way to the helicopter and his eyes grew wide.

He had to be close by.

"Ellis!" he shouted his name once again. He hoped that he wouldn't have to use the paddles on the usually lively boy but was let down when he finally found the boy's body.

The reason why he couldn't find him for so long was for the number one reason most people fail in finding anything… they never look up.

Coach let out a pitiful sigh and observed the morbid scene in front of him.

Ellis was hanging from the tree bent over, his stomach lying on the large tree branch, his arms thrown over his head and hanging as limply as his legs; he had blood dripping from his mouth and his eyes were staring down at Coach, lifeless. "Good lord, boy." He muttered.

He reached up and managed to grab a hold of his hand and pulled him down, catching his body as he fell into his arms.

He cradled the boy into his chest for a moment and sighed. Gently he laid him on the soft ground and pulled out the paddles.

He begged to no one in particular for the defib to work its magic and bring life back into the young man and cried out when it didn't work at first, but when he tried again it did.

Ellis brought in a ragged first breath and flailed his arms and screamed in confusion. Coach held the boy close to him and rubbed his back, soothing him into silence. "You're safe now boy… you're okay." He said in a deep calming voice. "You're okay." He repeated.

Ellis calmed down and pulled away from the large black man, his eyes glistening with tears. Coach frowned and simply cradled the boy as he fell into a deep sleep.

Coach picked the boy up and was walking away when he realized that something was strange about the mechanic now. His dark curly hair made him look even more boyish but that was the problem, Coach was able to see his hair. He looked around until he found the hat laying at the foot of the tree. He laid Ellis back down and went over to get the hat, he bent over and picked it up and brought it back over to Ellis, and placed it on his head.

"Can't imagine what life would be like if you didn't have your hat…" He mumbled as he carried the young man back to where he had last seen Rochelle with Nick.

X.x.X.x

Rochelle moved back over behind Nick and lifted his head into her lap, and stroked his hair unconsciously as she watched him sleep. She had given him a shot of morphine and it seemed to help him relax and rest more easily.

Rochelle watched all around them carefully her pistol by her side; locked and loaded and ready to kill any infected who tried to fuck with Nick or herself.

The sound of a twig snapping brought her attention to her right; she had to look over her shoulder a little to see, but what she saw wasn't what she wanted. Coach was carrying Ellis over.

"Oh no…" She said under her breath as Coach grew nearer. "Is he alright?" She asked when he was in earshot.

Coach figured telling her everything wouldn't be the smartest course of action and instead just nodded, "He is now."

Rochelle nodded and turned her attention back to the sleeping conman.

"How's he holding up?" Coach asked as he laid Ellis down next to Nick.

"He's had worse." She smiled weakly.

Coach let out a small chuckle. "Poor boys."

Rochelle nodded and just then the clap of thunder caused her to jump, resulting in a sudden downpour of rain. "We gotta get them outta this rain!" She shouted over the roar of repetive thunder and rain.

Coach picked up Ellis once more and nodded his agreement.

Nick had woken up to the clap of thunder and did his best to get on his feet, Rochelle half dragging Nick behind her; his right arm was over and around her shoulders and she had her left hand around his waist, clasping the back of his jacket in her hand.

Slowly they all made their way to an open freight car and all fell in exhausted. To their own good luck previous survivors, or bo's had been their recently, leaving sleeping bags, guns, and ammo inside the very car they had taken shelter in. Rochelle used the lightning strikes to help her see as she threw open a foot locker and found a couple glow sticks.

She cracked them open and shook them to life as she closed the car door to give them cover from any curious and/or hungry infected and locked it from the inside with a bar.

She and Coach strategically placed the four glow sticks around the car to give them maximum light.

She made a makeshift bed for everyone and as she got Nick into the warm comfort of the sleeping bags Coach did the same for Ellis who was still very much in a coma like sleep.

She helped Nick out of his jacket and put it under his head to serve as a makeshift pillow. Once she was certain that Nick was comfortable she moved to check on Coach's injuries but Nick grabbed her wrist. "Stay." He whispered.

Rochelle felt her heart rip into pieces at hearing the usually cold and less than pleasant, but strong, conman sound so desperate.

It was known fact that Nick did treat her much differently than he did Ellis and Coach but he was still an ass most of the time.

Rochelle always knew he had a soft side but this was something she had yet to see or hear from him.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat and sunk to her knees next to him. "Okay…" She whispered in return.

She could only hope that Coach was okay and if he wasn't would let her know.

She moved behind Nick once again and placed his jacket in her lap and placed his head on top the jacket; she rested her back against the wall of the car and leaned her head back, she unconsciously ran her fingers once again through his hair soothingly.

She closed her eyes for a moment but then snapped them open, she had to remain alert to protect her boys but it was hard. Every so often she would find herself falling asleep and would have to force herself to stay awake.

She jumped when Coach spoke again, "Go to sleep, I'll stay awake. Rest little sister." He said in a deep but low voice. It was soothing and soon she found herself nodding off and falling into a blissful sleep.

X.x.X.x

Rochelle groaned as she woke, her tailbone screaming at her for sleeping the way she had last night.

Her eyes fluttered open and she realized Nick was still sleeping and despite her own soreness she couldn't help but smile. She looked to the other side of the car to see both Coach and Ellis fast asleep. She smiled again and was going to try and go back to bed but was unsurprised to know that her own butt wouldn't allow that unless she changed position.

Slowly she started to lift Nick's head a little and shift from under him but his mumbled voice made her freeze.

"Your ass botherin' you sweetheart?" He said, his voice still gruff from sleep.

She laughed quietly, "Yeah a little."

Nick slowly and groggily sat up for her so she could move away from her seat on the floor and got on her knees before leaning back on her shins and sitting like that next to him as he continued to lay down.

Rochelle smiled and thanked him quietly, once she was cleared she replaced the jacket and laid it on the floor for him so her could continue to sleep. "S'not the same." He slurred, referring to the lack of comfort the jacket provided him.

"Sorry" she said, feeling bad for him.

"I can think of a way you can make it up for me." He said as he cracked one eye open and looked at her.

She pursed her lips at him and quirked an eyebrow, "is that so…?"

He nodded slowly and patted the spot next to him.

She smiled and complied, laying down next to him and instantly laying her head on his chest gently, she had one arm laying under her while her other was draped across his chest.

He moved one of his arm around her and rested it on her waist while the other rested on her own hand that rested on his chest. "Comfortable?" He asked.

She nodded, "Very." And she wasn't lying it felt awfully natural to be laying with him like this.

"Good." He said before falling back into his sleep.

Rochelle smiled and fell asleep to the sound of Nick's heart beating, glad her tailbone was no longer screaming at her.

X.x.X.x

The next morning Rochelle and the others woke up awfully refreshed.

Rochelle and Nick were still sleeping next to one another, the sleeping bag had ended up unzipped and covering the both of them.

Coach was up and at 'em and going through the foot locker, looking for anything useful and Ellis was awake, bright eyed and bushy tailed talking about a Keith story while cleaning a shotgun.

"So Keith was like, "What the hell?" but the clerk went on about how- Hey look who's up!" He said flippantly. Looking over to the, possible, couple who was awake and now staring at the mechanic who looked as though he had never been in any danger of dying.

"Thought for sure you guys would sleep the whole day away. It's already going on 5." He said, still smiling. "Guess you needed the sleep." He said shrugging before continuing his story.

He must have felt awfully good being able to talk about something and not be told off.

Rochelle smiled and looked up and Nick who smirked at her. "I think this is the best I've slept for a long time." She said quietly.

Nick chuckled which Rochelle could hear deep in his chest along with his steady heartbeat. "Same here sweetheart."

Less than a half hour later, the door to the car was open and everyone was prepped and ready to go. Rochelle grabbed an Uzi off the footlocker and checked it as she listened to the conversation around her.

"Alright since we no longer have a pilot… let alone a chopper it looks like we're walking it." Coach thought out loud.

"Wait… why don't we got a pilot?" Ellis asked, Rochelle moved to the entrance of the car and looked out, puddles were everywhere and zombies were still walking about like a bunch of mindless corpses… Rochelle laughed at her own pun. The banner outside raised an eyebrow, _No ceda no military stay out… looks like we're welcome…_

Everyone felt bad for the boy, since after he was revived he seemed to have forgotten parts of what had happened the previous day.

"Nick shot him." Coach explained quickly.

"Nick, what the hell, you shot the pilot?"

Rochelle looked over her shoulder to defend Nick but it seemed he had it covered. "He was a zombie Ellis… I shot a zombie. He must've gotten bit before he picked us up." He defended.

Ellis thought a moment and then shrugged, "Yeah, I guess… but still."

Rochelle shook her head and smiled, "Looks like we're welcome… so let's just get going." She said as she jumped out of the car and into a puddle of muck.

The four survivors continued on… all of them wondering what was in store and if they would ever get a break from the life of zombies.

X.x.X.x

_Just a little idea of why you spawn in a train car instead of a helicopter crash site. Wiiiith a little Nick and Ro added cus I'm just THAT awesome. ;-)_

_Hope you enjoyed!_

_Review? Please? It's a quick and painless process I swear. I do it ALL the time and look how good I turned out…._

_O.o_


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